I'll gladly throw in $500 for a new state constitution and districts that are not gerrymandered. If the great recession doesn't result in structural changes, I scared to think of what it will actually take.

CA People -- in the hole for $500 per person?
on 05/15/2012 10:25:56 MDT

Interesting Op-ed in the WSJ comparing California to Greece. And they never touched spending on non-taxpaying illegals. Since I don't live there, I'm not going to make any snarky comments about the legislators on both sides of the aisle.

California cannot function because of proposition 13, a key part of which requires a 67% majority to pass any tax increases etc. The republican party consistently blocks any effort to actually fix the situation, something Jerry Brown discovered fairly early in his term this time around. The old republican party, that was actually reasonable, and able to engage in dialogue, and compromise, is now not present, and what we have left is an extremist party that refuses to engage in any meaningful compromise whatsoever, with the democrats occupying some weird sort of center right netherworld, which is a bizarre twist is called 'liberal' or 'radical' or whatever by the right, to whom now anything left of pure unregulated corporatism is considered communism. And we've seen where that takes you enough times over the last century...

Obviously with this type of political scenario, only gridlock can occur, since for some perverse reason california continues to elect both parties at roughly the same levels, which gives the republicans veto power over any and all legistlation that could actually fix the problem. Then they step back and blame the democrats, a nice, radically irresponsible way to proceed, one that is absolutely guaranteed to bring the state, and the US, down to the second world status that seems to be the goal of the current system to achieve. And you know how it goes, set the bar low enough, and you'll reach your goals.

Despite cute names like 'moonbeam', Brown is actually a pretty sharp character, and if this situation can be fixed, he might be the one to do it, hard to say, depends on California starting to vote their interests not what some barrage of tv commercials tells them to think. Not a good situation, very sad to watch. What's particularly concerning is that the economic situation is not going to return to 'growth' due to external factors, so really an adjustment that is somewhat rational needs to occur, but it is not occurring, same problem as with the feds, europe, greece, borrowing to pay for the present, with the assumption that growth will resume. Both parties are equally guilty on this stage of denial, but one is extreme and unwilling to dialogue or compromise, and that can and does lead to gridlock.

We need to get rid of the 67% thing in California, as soon as possible, and the other tools being used to bring the US down, like filibustering, then maybe some true campaign finance reform, but the situation looks very bad, to put it mildly. Sadly as things cycle downwards, the typical reaction is reaction, ie, reactionary thinking, and the worse it gets the more extreme the reactions get. The right is already so far right of where it was in the 60s and 70s now that major figures from that era, even Reagan people, Nixon people, Goldwater people, have been writing books warning about the extremism of the new right. As well they should.

I'm fine cutting spending as long as the cuts are coming from the right's massively bloated pet projects, like our prison system. Let's not pretend it's a bunch of hippy liberals driving California over the edge with boondoggle spending.

Again, so despite the fact that the left has controlled the legislature in CA for 40 years with a couple of exceptions, has drawn the redristicting maps until the democratic influenced "public committees" took over just recently, and had half of the recent governors, it is the rigt that is ruining the state?

blame the liberals as always. Keep in mind that we usually have a Repulican Gov. with veto power.

You think we spend a lot on education? Then why does my family have to pay for items for kids to use in my wifes classroom? My wife has not had a cost of living raise in 5 years.....Would you be mad????? Why are teachers getting pink slipped yearly?

Both parties have a lot to answer for. Brown (Moonbeam) has done a pretty fair job and he is trying to right the ship...kinda like Obama.

Keep in mind, when the S**t hit the fan, it was the Republicans and their policies that brought us into The Great Recession. But yes, it is Browns fault and it is Obama's fault.

Our state is not bringing in the money that it did during the boon years. Programs have been cut so much that their really is not a whole lot left to be cut. Raising taxes a little bit will get us out of this mess. The only way Brown could get his plan to work was to bring it to the voters. The Republicans have stood in the way of raising taxes.